Tooth brush

ABSTRACT

A toothbrush in which the length of the bristles varies with the longer bristles located on the outside and the shorter ones on the inside so as to define a longitudinal groove having a width about equal to half the clinical crown level and a depth about equal to half the width of the groove.

United States Patent Haije [1 1 3,678,528 [4 1 July 25,1972

[ 1 TOOTH BRUSH [72] Inventor: Johan Arend Frederlk Haiie, Koninginneweg33, Haarlem, Netherlands [22] Filed: May 5, 1970 [21] AppLNo; 34,655

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data May 7, 1969 Netherlands ..6906990[52] U.S.Cl. ..15/l67R, 15/110 51 Int. Cl. ..A46b 9/04 [58]FieldofSearch ..15/l67 R, 167A,22, 11o

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 803,995 11/1905 Davenport..15/l67 R 3/1933. Hicks ..l5/l67 R 3,142,852 8/1964 Phaneuf et al..l5/22 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,057,279 10/1953 France.,...l5/167 R Primary Examiner-Peter Feldman ArtorneyFleit, Gipple &Jacobson [5 7] ABSTRACT A toothbrush in which the length of the bristlesvaries with the longer bristles located on the outside and the shorterones on the inside so as to define a longitudinal groove having a widthabout equal to half the clinical crown level and a depth about equal tohalf the width of the groove.

1 Claim, 2 Drawing Figures PATENIEB I 3.678.528

INVENTOR Johan Hdija w, @zyw ATTORNEYS TOOTH BRUSH The invention relatesto a toothbrush, in which the bristles are shorter in the longitudinalcenter part of the brush than along the sides of the brush.

Such a toothbrush is known from Gebrauchsmuster No. 1,688,123.

The bristles of this known toothbrush have such a length that there is acrosswise, hollow, symmetrical concavity in the surface of the brush,which concavity is adapted to the somewhat convex side face of a molar.

The cleaning action of this known toothbrush is not any better inessence than that of conventional toothbrushes having bristles in thecenter part of the brush equal in length with those at the sides sincethe principle of the cleaning action is virtually the same. Thisprinciple is based on the fact that the brush is pushed against thedifferent faces of the molars or teeth with the bristles inperpendicular position to these faces, while the brush is moved to andfro, so that the different faces of the dental members have to becleaned one by one, whereas neither the interdental spaces nor thesulcus marginalis are cleaned.

On the contrary, the toothbrush according to the invention is based onan entirely novel principle for cleaning the dental members. Thisprinciple is based on the fact that the cleaning has to be an imitationof the natural cleaning obtained by natural chewing action. This naturalcleaning is achieved by the fact that the dental members are polished bychewing coarse food, while the sulcus marginalis is cleaned and a slightpressure is exerted on the gingiva.

According to the invention, a toothbrush is disclosed and taught, whichwhen applied in the proper way, will give a faithful imitation of thisnatural cleaning process, because the bristles in the center part of thebrush have such lengths when the German compared to the lengths of theother bristles on the brush that a longitudinal groove is formed ordefined in the surface of the brush bristles.

The groove has an advantageous cross-section which will generally berectangular in shape.

When in use, the toothbrush is placed on a dental member at an angle sothat the groove will cover the buccalocclusal or occlusaI-Iingual edge,and the brush is moved to and fro lengthwise while exerting a slightpressure. Thus, the short bristles at the bottom of the groove clean thedental member and the long bristles defining one side of the groovepartly penetrate into the sulcus marginalis and clean it. The longbristles on the outer edge of the brush massage the gingiva by exertingpressure and also prevent the long bristles penetrating into the sulcusmarginalis from penetrating too deeply.

Due to the presence of the groove, it is not essential for pressure tobe exerted on the brush in order to urge the bristles towards theaforesaid parts, for by exerting only a slight pressure on the brush,the bristles will assume the required curve, and due to their resiliencethey will contact the faces and follow the convexities of these faces intheir entirety when the brush is moved to and fro. In this way also theproper cleaning of the interdental spaces is achieved with thetoothbrush of the invention.

In addition, the groove forms a good guideway for the brush, as saidgroove provides bristles of two kinds of hardnesses or flexiblity,because the short bristles are relatively harder than the long bristles.The latter property is very important because the brush has to clean andmassage structures having two widely divergent hardnesses, viz. thestructure of the dental members and that of the gingiva, at one and thesame time.

It appears from the above that where the toothbrush according to theinvention is concerned, the width of the groove and the surface of thebrush, as well as the lengths of the bristles have preferably to beadapted to clinical crown level, for example, to the clinical crownlevel of milk teeth, or that of small, standard and large dental membersfor instance.

The stiffness or flexibility of the bristles, which is determined by theratio between the lengths and thicknesses of the bristles or by thematerial from which they are made, has also some influence on the sizesof the brush and the groove.

The bristles in the groove of the brush according to the invention mayadvantageously differ in thickness from the other bristles, as a resultof which the cleaning action of the brush may be improved even further.

In an embodiment of the toothbrush according to the invention in whichthe bristles have the same thickness, the width of the groove is aboutequal to half the clinical crown level, while the depth of the groove isabout equal to half its width.

The bristles of the toothbrush according to the invention are preferablyinserted in the form of tu'fis, the brush having six tufts of bristlesbreadthwise, two centrally disposed tufts which form the short bristles,and two tufts of long bristles on either side of these short tufts ofbristles. The, first four tufts of bristles, calculated from each sideand including the short ones in the middle, determine a distance equalto the clinical crown level.

In order to enable the toothbrush accurately to follow the curves of theteeth, the brush is preferably provided with seven tufts of bristles inthe longitudinal direction.

The toothbrush according to the invention is advantageously adapted tobe mounted on an apparatus which provides the brush with a lengthwisevibration. This will facilitate the guidance of the bristles along thedental member and ensure a free movement of the bristles, so that thepressure on the gingiva may be maintained during said displacementwithout the gingiva being damaged in any way.

The invention will now be explained in more detail with reference to thedrawing.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the toothbrush according to the inventionin a perspective view.

FIG. 2 shows the toothbrush of FIG. 1 in front elevational view, and inposition on a dental member.

The toothbrush comprises a handle 1 and a brush 2, the brush beingcomposed of a number of tufts of bristles implanted in a part 3 whichforms an integral part of the handle 1. As seen in FIG. 2, there are sixtufts of bristles in a row, the outermost two of which 4 have longerbristles than the inner most two tufts 5, so that in the surface of thebrush there is formed a longitudinal groove 6.

The handle 1 is provided with a tapering end portion and a resilientpawl 7 thus enabling the toothbrush to be fitted into some type of areceiver part which is, for instance, adapted to vibrate the toothbrushin a longitudinal direction by a power operated mechanism.

When the brush is in use, it is placed on the dental members at anangle, as shown in FIG. 2, and a slight pressure is exerted on thebrush, causing the innermost tufts of bristles 5 to clean thebuccalocclusal face 8 and the buccal face 9, the innermost of the twolong tufts of bristles 4 to penetrate into the sulcus marginalis l0 andto clean it, the outermost of these tufts of bristles 4 to massage thegingiva 11 by exerting pressure (visible anemia) and to prevent theformer long tufts to penetrate too deeply into the sulcus marginalis. Ifthe brush has completed its task in the shown position, it is placed onthe occlusal-lingual edge at an angle, where it will clean in the sameway the occlusal-lingual face 12, the lingual face 13, the sulcusmarginalis l4 and massage the gingiva 15.

By guiding the vibrating brush in the shown position along the dentalmembers, the slightly flexed bristles will follow the convexities of thedental members. The vibrating bristles may first be guided to the buccalby the mesial faces of the dental member if a distal movement is made.Then the bristles are approximal or between the teeth and then flow tothe buccal face. The mesial face refers to the face of the tooth facingthe mesial plane and distal face is the one facing away from the mesialplane. Thus, a distal movement is towards the rear of the mouth and amesial movement is towards the front. Therefore, when the brush is movedin a mesial direction, the bristles flow in a reverse direction than asdescribed above.

The sulcus maginalis also serves as a guide groove to urge the bristlesapproximal. Depending on the outward movement of the vibrator, thepressure and the speed of movement, the bristles will sooner or laterslip out of the distobuccal or distolingual part of the sulcusmarginalis when a distal movement is made. Of course, with a mesialmovement, the reverse will happen.

The toothbrush according to the invention will therefore cleansimultaneously two faces and half of the mesial and distal face, whilecleaning the sulcus marginalis and massaging the gingiva from thenatural direction onwards without damaging the gum, all in onecontinuous operation within a short period of time.

In addition to this, the toothbrush is easy to handle, inasmuch as thebrush may be adapted to the clinical crown level due to the guide groovewhich simultaneously supplies bristles of varying hardness, while only avery slight pressure has to be exerted on the bristles of thetoothbrush, so that the brush has a long life.

It has been proved that the toothbrush according to the invention,preferably combined with a mesiodistal vibration, and properly appliedas described above, may prevent caries, paradentosis and tartar and curegingivitis.

Although the invention has been shown and described with reference tospecific embodiments, various changes and modifications will be evidentto those skilled in the an. Such changes and modifications which do notdepart from the spirit, scope, and contemplation of the invention aredeemed to come within its purview.

lclaim:

l. A toothbrush comprising at least six tufts of bristles breadthwiseand each of said tufts of bristles extending from a single flat pan, thetwo centrally disposed tufts comprised of short bristles and the fourouter tufts comprised of relatively longer bristles so that the brushbristles define a longitudinal groove centered in the surface of thebrush and wherein said groove in vertical cross-section is in the formof a rectangle, the width of the surface of the brush beingsubstantially equal to 3/2 of a clinical crown level whereby four tufisof bristles counted from one side determine a distance substantiallyequal to the clinical crown level and the width of the groove beingsubstantially equal to one half of the clinical crown level while itsdepth is substantially equal to one-half of the width thereof, thearrangement being such that when the brush is placed on a dental memberat an angle while said groove rests on one of the buccalocclusal or theocclusal-lingual edge of the dental member, the bristles of the brush byonly a slight pressure to cervico approximal cover the occlusal buccalpart, the entire buccal face, respectively the occlusal-lingual part andthe entire lingual face of the dental member, as well as the associatedsulcus marginalis and the upper part of the gingiva.

* l I I i

1. A toothbrush comprising at least six tufts of bristles breadthwiseand each of said tufts of bristles extending from a single flat part,the two centrally disposed tufts comprised of short bristles and thefour outer tufts comprised of relatively longer bristles so that thebrush bristles define a longitudinal groove centered in the surface ofthe brush and wherein said groove in vertical cross-section is in theform of a rectangle, the width of the surface of the brush beingsubstantially equal to 3/2 of a clinical crown level whereby four tuftsof bristles counted from one side determine a distance substantiallyequal to the clinical crown level and the width of the groove beingsubstantially equal to one half of the clinical crown level while itsdepth is substantially equal to one-half of the width thereof, thearrangement being such that when the brush is placed on a dental memberat an angle while said groove rests on one of the buccalocclusal or theocclusal-lingual edge of the dental member, the bristles of the brush byonly a slight pressure to cervico approximal cover the occlusal buccalpart, the entire buccal face, respectively the occlusal-lingual part andthe entire lingual face of the dental member, as well as the associatedsulcus marginalis and the upper part of the gingiva.